I'll be up from FL and would like to get as much riding in as I can, but right now it's looking like Saturday will be a hiking day, unless anyone has any suggestions for trails that may bode well after getting nearly 2" of rain on Friday. Any ideas?
Planning to ride WNC this Saturday?
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I'd wait and see what the actual totals are before making a judgement call on Saturday, forecasting the rainfall totals is a wash and a guess. The rain on Friday is due to a cold front pushing through, which can happen faster than forecasted or it can be slow and dump a lot of rain. The forecasts I've read vary, some reporting the majority will happen in the morning and others reporting heavy rain the entire day into Sat AM, so I'd wait and see what happens.
As for trails that deal with it well: the rocky side of Daniel's (CCW), Pilot, Farlow, Sycamore, and Trace generally deal fairly well, although the latter has been not so much lately. I'd avoid Bent Creek, Lower Black, and Bennett.
As for trails that deal with it well: the rocky side of Daniel's (CCW), Pilot, Farlow, Sycamore, and Trace generally deal fairly well, although the latter has been not so much lately. I'd avoid Bent Creek, Lower Black, and Bennett.
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Yeah, watch the radar. Last weekend was forecast to be horrible, but nothing materialized Saturday for the most part.
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If you're lucky, the heavy weather from this system will be very spotty and you can find a spot to ride that didn't get hit so hard.
It's what I ended up doing this past Saturday. My house was getting a pretty good downpour, and I checked the radar. Looked like most of the rain was falling to the west of the Parkway from Bent Creek into Candler. I decided to go ride out of the Trace Ridge trailhead once the thunder stopped, and it looked like not a drop fell there.
It's what I ended up doing this past Saturday. My house was getting a pretty good downpour, and I checked the radar. Looked like most of the rain was falling to the west of the Parkway from Bent Creek into Candler. I decided to go ride out of the Trace Ridge trailhead once the thunder stopped, and it looked like not a drop fell there.
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If there is any way possible for you to ride Sunday it looks perfect. About 20 degrees warmer and a bonus day of the trails drying out (if needed). Like the others have said pay attention to specific areas for rainfall. Weather Underground is great and has many different stations with rain gauges listed. Fingers crossed the rain isn't awful tomorrow so that Saturday is a go.
I'm afraid you'll get much more use out of your waders this weekend. It's been raining really hard on both sides of Pisgah for the past couple hours.
The heaviest rain should stop by this afternoon/evening, but the trail conditions will remain poor just about everywhere on Saturday.
Some of the rockier ridge-line trails mentioned will be better by Sunday, but even those will have their fair share of moist spots.
If you can wait, the majority of Pisgah will return to hero-dirt by Monday, and all of next week looks to be perfect.
This rain is pretty ridiculous though....when I moved here in 2007 you could just about guarantee 50 good weeks of MTB per year. Fast forward to 2018 and now 2019 and we'll be lucky if we see 40 weeks of acceptable riding conditions. Seriously it's been that wet. So much so that my family and I frequently discuss relocating somewhere drier! (and not just for MTB time)
please make it stop!
Western NC...."home to some epic duck hunting!"
The heaviest rain should stop by this afternoon/evening, but the trail conditions will remain poor just about everywhere on Saturday.
Some of the rockier ridge-line trails mentioned will be better by Sunday, but even those will have their fair share of moist spots.
If you can wait, the majority of Pisgah will return to hero-dirt by Monday, and all of next week looks to be perfect.
This rain is pretty ridiculous though....when I moved here in 2007 you could just about guarantee 50 good weeks of MTB per year. Fast forward to 2018 and now 2019 and we'll be lucky if we see 40 weeks of acceptable riding conditions. Seriously it's been that wet. So much so that my family and I frequently discuss relocating somewhere drier! (and not just for MTB time)
please make it stop!
Western NC...."home to some epic duck hunting!"
Its almost like this region is classified as a temperate rain forest (hint, it is).
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Yup. I remember it raining like this pretty regular. Maybe not to this degree, but a lot of rain. It used to snow here too.
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like it did in December? ;-)
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Ugh! I too will be in town this long weekend and was hoping to ride Sunday and Monday. Guess it'll be gravel on Sunday and hopefully trails by Monday.
It's been a frustrating year for riding off-road ... I'm trying to escape the rain in WV but it looks like the record setting rainfall will continue all over the region.
It's been a frustrating year for riding off-road ... I'm trying to escape the rain in WV but it looks like the record setting rainfall will continue all over the region.
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Yep. Looks like a gorgeous day all around. Fingers crossed.
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Daniel is a better option, actually one of the better choices if you have to ride today. Wait as late as you can to let the trees do some drinking and have fun.
Gonna hold off for today. Ended up going to hike Black Balsam and got surprised by a good bit of snowfall which was cool. Probably going to try middle/lower black + Sycamore tomorrow. We hiked Moore Cove earlier and the trails there looked surprisingly good.
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